InSight Launch Will Be NASA’s “First Interplanetary Launch” From West Coast

4 May 2018
The Washington Post reports that NASA’s InSight spacecraft is “slated to launch early Saturday morning, carrying instruments to take the temperature and pulse of the Red Planet’s deep interior.” The probe will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in “NASA’s first interplanetary launch from the West Coast.” The mission aims to help scientists understand how the interior of Mars was formed. According to InSight Deputy Principal Investigator Suzanne Smrekar, Earth’s “initial crust is essentially gone, it’s all been recycled,” meaning that Mars will give scientists an “opportunity to see the materials, the structure, the chemical reactions that are close to what we see in the interior of Earth, but it’s preserved from the first 10 million years [of the solar system]. It gives us a chance to go back in time.” (Image Credit: NASA)More Info (Washington Post)